Cape Town – The Namibian government is committed to becoming a key player to enhance the space of digital transformation to achieve value-driven growth, says Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Engel Nawatiseb.
Nawatiseb spoke at the launch of MTC/Huawei Cloud and Fibre solutions here on Thursday on the side-line of the Africacom summit.
“That is why we invested and participated in the sea cable (WACS) a few years ago to ensure that we have enough capacity to cater for the future demands that will come with improved technologies.” He said the possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, are unlimited. Moreover, these possibilities will be multiplied by emerging technological breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing. Nawatiseb noted the first industrial revolution used water and steam power to mechanise production.
“The second industrial revolution used electric power to create mass production. The third industrial revolution used electronics and information technology to automate production,” he noted, adding that now the fourth industrial revolution is building on the third industrial revolution, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century.
“It is characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres,” said the deputy minister.
The speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent. “When compared with previous industrial revolutions, the fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace,” said the deputy minister.
Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country. “The breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management and governance,” he adds.
The telecom sector is an enabler and driver of a smart world and industry digitisation.
“Industry players are now leveraging their own strengths to shift from investment-driven to value-driven growth. It is a common focus of discussion of how to achieve new growth through new opportunities offered by fibre and cloud computing services,” he said.
Nawatiseb said he was delighted to see that MTC has taken the mantle of transforming and reinventing itself from a traditional telco, towards an integrated solutions-based full information communication technology service provider.